The White Sox (24-28) probably thought they were on their way to stealing a series from the contending Red Sox and taking two out of a three-game set in which they sent out two injury replacement starters and their ace was shelled. But in a game otherwise devoid of offense, a tightly held 1-0 lead under the stewardship of Mike Pelfrey blew up when Rick Renteria had the temerity to send out one of the best relievers in baseball this year, Anthony Swarzak, to hold it.

“Got into the game today with our game plan already set up,” Renteria said, “[Pelfrey] was going to give us five, hold them there and then we were going to hand it over to the bullpen, basically. Unfortunately it didn't work out for us in that particular inning. Anthony was looking pretty good, I know there were a couple of jam shots, ball off the end of that bat. We were going to try to get out of that inning with the walk to Bradley. We got that ground ball, we just didn't turn it cleanly enough, maybe we get out of it.”

***

1.849: OPS of opposing hitters facing Pelfrey for the third time of the night coming into Wednesday, which was likely the motivation for pulling him after five strong, scoreless innings and 83 pitches in a 1-0 game at the time. Pelfrey has been solid his last three times out and walked just four in his last 16 innings, but protecting him with a tiny lead and a fully rested back end of the bullpen seemed like the right move.

“When I was a lot younger, I definitely didn’t like coming out of the game and always had something to say,” Pelfrey said. “Maybe that’s a little selfish. I know that in Anaheim he left me in there, and it ended up costing us. I just go out there and give you whatever I have until you say enough’s enough and move on. I feel pretty good about that situation every time you hand the ball over to Swarzak, as good as he’s been. Unfortunately he just had some bad luck.”

3: Runs allowed by Swarzak on the entire season (23 1/3 innings) before the Red Sox blooped him into submission for a four-run sixth inning. A slight hesitation getting the ball out of Tim Anderson’s glove kept Swarzak from escaping with an inning-ending double play and no runs across, but bad bounces happen when pitchers can’t miss bats. Swarzak's numbers dipped down to “very reliable reliever” in May after a wrath of God April.

“I feel like I made some quality pitches,” Swarzak said. “But at the same time I didn’t put guys away when I had the opportunity to. I’m trying not to think about it too much, obviously. The results weren’t there. It’s extremely unfortunate because I really believe that if I throw up a zero right there, we’re going to go on to win that game 1-0. That wasn’t the case, some balls fell in and couldn’t put the ball past somebody when I really needed to. The result was four runs.”

Swarzak said he apologized to Pelfrey after the game, but Pelfrey didn't think the apology was necessary.

50 percent: The White Sox's success rate on sacrifice bunts. Leury Garcia at least atoned for his bad bunt back to Red Sox starter Drew Pomeranz by running all the way to second base while Yolmer Sanchez got caught in a rundown between second and third. But the Sox also stranded Leury in the inning, and bunted with their fourth-best hitter.

19: Multi-hit games for Avisail Garcia–sixth in American League All-Star voting for outfielders–after he lashed a pair of singles off Pomeranz. He had just 25 such games in 2016.

130: The White Sox’s burly, MLB-best wRC+ against left-handed pitching coming into the night before Pomeranz shut them down for seven innings of back-breaking curves and just one run allowed. He struck out eight and walked no one.

Tim Anderson had a pair of hits and one RBI Wednesday against the Red Sox. (Mike Dinovo-USA TODAY Sports)

.394: Tim Anderson’s BABIP in May after a .254 mark in April that was wholly unfitting of someone with remarkable speed. A single and an RBI double on Wednesday continued his quick correction. While sitting at a high BABIP is typically seen as a sign of coming regression, Anderson is going to need to sit significantly above average to make his profile work.

1-for-25: The combined record of the past 26 hitters to face Chris Beck over his last eight appearances. He has struck out 10 and walked one over 8 1/3 innings, and struck out four during two perfect innings Wednesday night. Beck has always thrown hard, and the White Sox have already pulled shut-down relievers out of more shocking places this season.

“Beck's been executing, staying downhill, his changeups's been really good,” Renteria said, “Split change. His cutter, slider is working really well, middle, other way, running a little bit against the right-handed hitter. He's another guy that's from within the organization that continues to chip away at how he's effectively going after hitters and is giving us another tool that we can use, an interchangeable part in the relief corps that we have. He's drafted by the White Sox, developed by the White Sox, coming up from within the White Sox and he's starting to show signs of confidence and effectiveness. He's doing very, very well.”

James Fegan is the lead writer on the White Sox for The Athletic Chicago. Previously, James founded and served as Editor-in-Chief of BP South Side, and his work has appeared in Baseball Prospectus, ESPN SweetSpot, The Rock River Times and Athlete's Quarterly. Follow James on Twitter @JRFegan.